Toward an Integrative Approach to Affirmative Action

Özet

Having taken advantage of quotas and set-asides in the job market and in university admissions, considerable numbers of African Americans have
managed to bridge the socioeconomic gap with the more prosperous groups, but the backlash against preferential treatment during the past few years
has cast doubt over its very constitutionality. That racial preferences need to be continued for the greatest number of African Americans to truly take
advantage of it is a basic postulate in this essay. But the system of racial preferences, as it currently stands, will shortly lose the support it has had
for decades, whereby a well-structured reform plan is urgently needed. This essay proposes a reform plan for affirmative action so that it eventually
fulfills the goals for which it was initially designed.
Keywords: Affirmative action, African Americans, preferential treatment, welfare reform, racism